STEVE COOGAN - COOGAN NEARLY BLINDED IN ONSET ACCIDENT

COOGAN NEARLY BLINDED IN ONSET ACCIDENT

British comedian STEVE COOGAN is grateful to have retained his vision after shooting NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN - because an onset accident nearly cost him his sight.
The Around The World in 80 Days funnyman, who played a toy soldier in the comedy, was hit in the eye by a giant plastic prop during an action sequence - causing momentary blindness.
The star was so badly hurt that film bosses had to use heavy make-up to cover the bruising for the remainder of the shoot.
Coogan says, "Honestly, on that film, I really thought I might go blind. During filming one day, I was running along - I play a toy soldier - scampering past these giant blades of plastic grass. But, being really old, I got out of breath, so I stopped. And as I bent over to catch my breath, one of these blades of grass went right in my eye.
"It was horrific - it pushed my eyelid over the top of my eyeball and down over the other side. I bruised my ruddy eyeball - actually, I nearly blinded myself. I stopped and put my hand over my eye - I thought I'd have blood gushing out - I couldn't see anything. My head went numb. I had a black eye for the whole of the rest of the film. They had to cover it up with make-up every day."